Fool's Game
by thundercalls
Summary: Jennifer finds out about the agreement between Rodney and Ronon to let 'the best man win' and she's not exactly happy about it. R/K, complete.


It'd became a routine. Sleep by oh-one-hundred, up by five, run with Laura at oh-five-thirty, back to shower and dress, then mess hall for breakfast and into the infirmary by oh-eight. But today she actually had the day off, so her routine was only disrupted in the sense that she wouldn't be going to the infirmary after breakfast.

Laura was a good friend. And she helped to keep Rodney at bay, seeing as the scientist wasn't too friendly with the Lieutenant. She along with Major Evan Lorne had became close to Jennifer when she didn't necessarily feel part of the 'team'. They'd formed their own sort of team. Evan normally brought Jen her meals when she was overworking herself in the infirmary. Laura was the only female on the base with an unbiased opinion on things that Jen needed a female to talk to.

And that was often lately. She wasn't able to discern right from wrong anymore. Good from bad when it came to her own moral decisions. Especially when it involved the men in her life. Yes, plural. Ironic. For the first quarter of her life almost aside from her first kindergarten kiss, she count on one hand the number of suitors she'd had on one hand.

Now at the same time, she had two.

She'd already turned one down. Ronon. The person she wanted to be with, but couldn't bring herself to allow herself to love a warrior who had a small percentile of chance to return through the gate when he left. He had a shoot now, never ask questions sort of mentality whereas Jen was the direct opposite. She was a healer. She asked questions. She assessed. She made a vow to save people to the best of her ability. Not take lives.

Rodney… well, he was Rodney. Sure he was nice and unintentionally funny, but those qualities were often cancelled out by the size of his ego and his habit to whine about something being impossible and seemingly pulling a solution out of thin air on nearly all missions. She cared about him in the most platonic sense possible. She just wasn't sure how to turn him down.

Ronon she'd flat out lied to. The hurt that'd flashed across his face briefly had twisted her stomach, but her lips were tight in a smile when he brushed past her. Making her seem indifferent on the outside, but her heart clenching painfully at the thought of jerking him back and forth. Which is where the conversation with Laura started.

"So," Laura panted, grabbing her ankle and bringing it up to her hip to stretch the tightened muscles in her calves from the half hour run through the city. "What's lit a fire under your ass?"

Jen laughed breathlessly, bent at the waist as she tried to feed her oxygen starved lungs. She'd beaten Laura to their finish line a full fifteen seconds, something that had never happened in the time they'd been running together since Jen got back from Athos with Teyla after Nabal had betrayed the two women. "Just got a lot on my mind. Maybe I'm trying to outrun it." She joked, not seeing much truth to the thought of psychology.

"Have anything to do with your suitors?" Laura grinned in a way that reminded Jen of the saying 'cat ate the canary'. The redhead had little shame in talking about her friend's love life, hoping to have sex life details soon given her own dry spell. Jen secretly hoped her and Evan would hook up. "Ronon perhaps?" The way she stressed his name in itself was an insinuation of dirtier thoughts.

"No." Jen said tightly, keeping a smile on her face to try and pass off the internal struggle she felt with each mention of his name. "There's nothing with Ronon." _Anymore._

"Ah, so Rodney wins then?" Laura asked casually, as if she assumed that Jen knew what she'd mean.

"_Wins_?" Jen asked, straightening immediately with her spine coiled tightly defensively. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Surely… no. They wouldn't.

"You know, the whole 'Best Man' thing. I heard Rodney telling Zalenka about it when I was lurking behind corners to jump out and irk him some more." She chuckled at her own thoughts of doing that, "Something about how after they rescued you from Kiryk, Rodney asked Ronon his intentions towards you and they both went about how they have intentions like they're from the 50's or something for crying out loud," she rolled her eyes exasperatedly, "And then agreed that the best man would win."

Jennifer had gone stock still, staring at Laura unseeingly. She was running through every conversation and moment she'd had with the two men since that day that they'd rescued her from the Runner who meant her no harm in the long run. Was that what all of this had been? Some sort of bet? A _game_?

Laura stopped stretching out her legs, letting her left drop soundly to the floor with a sneaker screech echoing off the walls as she took in Jen's pale face. Moments before it'd been flushed from exertion and now she looked deathly ill. Uh oh. "Oh, Jen… you didn't know?" Open mouth, insert foot. "Jen, I'm so sorry!"

"I've gotta go." The blonde said quietly, turning and walking in the opposite direction, once again staring blankly at the floor. Her mind raced with thoughts and possibilities, scenarios and images of the team laughing at the doctor's expense. She knew in her heart that that wasn't like them, but the pain and scenarios in her head were outweighing logic.

She automatically sought out the first one who came to mind in regards to the 'bet'. Ronon. Naturally, he was inside the training room, even as early as it was. He was effortlessly twirling a bantos rod, staring at the ground as he mapped his steps against an imaginary opponent. Someone she assumed to be Rodney was standing in the corner cowering in a ninja suit.

"You two are unbelievable!" She exploded. Both of the objects of her pain fast turning rage in the same room was too much to pass up as everything flew to the surface immediately.

"Thanks." Ronon turned to her, cocky smirk peaking out from beneath his facial hair and loose swinging dreads.

"What am I, huh?" Jen ripped a bantos rod of her own off the wall and began mimicking some of Ronon's twirls, before her fingers gripped it in a death grip, poised to lunge. "A game?" She punctuated the word by swinging the rod into the air and bringing it down towards Ronon who barely got up his own in a block, surprised by her sudden attack. "A _bet_?" She growled, ramming the rod towards Ronon's stomach this time, causing him to jump away, staring at her in alarm.

"See! I told you that tickle in my throat was some sort of disease. It's obviously turned Jen into a violent, hormonal mess!" Rodney exclaimed, pointing rapidly in Jen's direction. He shrank further against the wall when she turned on him angrily. "Sorry! Not hormonal. Just… violent mess!"

"You're a hypochondriac! There's nothing wrong with you aside from the fact that at least Ronon came up with viable excuses to visit the infirmary to see me. You make up annoying symptoms to non-existent diseases. I don't know if it's because you're really _that_ crazy and annoying or if you're trying to discover something to add to your ever inflated ego!" She barely took a breath during her rant, having advanced towards Rodney until she was only a few feet from him, the bantos rod still in her hand tightly at her side.

She gasped when Ronon's body pressed tightly against her back, his weapon pressing against her shoulder-to-shoulder and pinning her effectively to him. "Calm down, Jen."

"Oh screw you." She said, fighting against him to try and break free, missing his soft strangled groan as she rubbed against him. Jen was too angry to care. "You guys bet on me! _Best man wins_? What the hell am I, Rachel Leigh Cook in She's All That?" She spat angrily, knowing that Ronon wouldn't get the reference because she highly doubted the 'chick flick' was part of John's movie nights.

Both men stiffened, suddenly at a loss of words and the rod around Jen's shoulders dropped slowly. Jen wheeled on Ronon, watching as he crossed in front of her to stand near Rodney. "What, nothing to say now about how I'm hormonal, Rodney?" She questioned, her voice choking on a ball of tears that rose in her throat and threatened to burn her eyes out of their sockets if she didn't release them. "I thought we were friends or something, ya'know? Friends don't do… whatever it is you guys did. Playing me like that." The first few tears slid out without her knowing they'd even clouded her vision as she stared at Ronon, pain ripping her insides apart.

She felt foolish. Betrayed. She'd fallen for the Satedan and been burned just like she knew she would. "Well, I suppose I should reveal who won the bet." She said bitterly, her eyes shifting between the two men in narrow anger as the bantos rod in her hand slipped to the ground with a muted thud.

"That won't be necess…" Rodney started, a seemingly smug smile on his face as if Ronon had told him about the conversation she and he had had after returning from the Daedalus.

"Congratulations, Ronon." Her eyes snapped to his, watching as his mouth opened in wordless surprise. She assumed he was confused from said talk in the hallway weeks before to now where she was 'congratulating' him for being 'the best man'. "Hope whatever the consolation prize is enough to keep you happy. 'Cause I'm…" She threw her hands up in the air, shaking her head as she turned and left the room.

She sniffled unladylike as she wiped at the tears that now fell freely, a sob threatening to escape her throat. She wanted to curl up in a corner and cry herself into oblivion for a few weeks to get over the humiliation that seeped through every pore in her body and produced more tears than humanly possible.

She was to the end of the hallway before a hand fell on her shoulder, halting her in her journey back to her room where she planned to give into what she felt and then call Laura for a man-bashing, ice cream fest. She stopped, but refused to turn around. There were words unspoken and yet it was as if his touch conveyed a psychic connection. The words _I'm sorry_ popped into her mind followed by _It was never like that for me, with us_. Maybe it was wishful thinking, maybe that's what the desperate grip on her shoulder meant. But she shrugged out of it. Disconnecting his touch, their bond, their relationship. Maybe even their friendship.

She didn't turn around and see the regret and pain on Ronon's face as she walked away without a second glance at him.

--

I don't know. I didn't really see anyone do the fallout to that scene yet. I doubt Jen would react well to finding out that they'd virtually placed a bet upon her feelings. I'd be _pissed, lol. I tried to keep her kind of in character, but we've never really seen her in this sort of light. Hopefully you all liked this! I wrote it while watching the new episode tonight and such, so it might be kinda jumpy in places and it's unbeta'd so all mistakes are mine and my short-attention span. _


End file.
